Once when Zechariah was serving as priest in his division's turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people were praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him.

But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. - Luke 1:8-15

The angel tells Zechariah that his prayer has been heard. We haven't been told what Zechariah was praying for, but now we know. He was praying for Israel, of course, as a Jewish priest would do. But he also was praying for a child.

Sometimes we're afraid to pray for things that seem unrealistic.

Three times in the birth story we'll hear angels say, "Do not be afraid" - to Zechariah here, to Mary at the Annunciation, and to the shepherds in the field. And Jesus, in his public life, will say these same words five times.

Clive Staples Lewis was an author and professor, who was born on this day in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland.

Although he was raised in the Church of Ireland, Lewis became an atheist at age 15. When World War I broke out, he enlisted in the British army. After the way, he resumed his studies, and eventually became a professor of English literature at Oxford University.

It was there that he met author J.R. Tolkien, who would later write The Lord of the Rings. The two became lifelong friends. Tolkien, a Catholic convert, tried unsuccessfully to convince Lewis to also become a Catholic.

By 1929, Lewis began his journey back to God, which he chronicled in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy. He called himself "the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England ... kicking, struggling, resentful and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape."

Christian themes were often found in his writings, particularly his series of young adult books, The Chronicles of Narnia.

C.S. Lewis died November 22, 1963, the same day that U.S. president John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. - Luke 1:5-7​Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless, which in their culture was a great misfortune, even a disgrace (since there would be no heirs to carry on the memory of the family). One can imagine their feelings of failure and inadequacy.

All of us feel barren in one way or another. We haven't "produced" in our lives what others (or we ourselves) had hoped we would. Our failure to live up to "what might have been" leaves us with a certain empty feeling.

But God does things through us that we ourselves cannot do, or even measure. And God does them often in ways we don't understand.

That's the secret. Let God what God wants to do through us. That is the path to greatness - no matter what our ages, no matter what our conditions.

​The liturgical year is the annual cycle of feasts and celebration the Church commemorates during its public worship – the Mass and the Divine Office. Through the course of the year, the mystery of salvation and the course of salvation history is traced as we move through the mysteries of Christ’s life and remember events in the life of Mary and the saints.

Originally, the early Church did not think in terms of an entire year, but rather continued the Jewish practice of viewing each week as a self-contained unit. During this week, Sunday was set aside as the Lord’s Day, replacing the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday. Fridays were designated as days of penance and sacrifice in memory of Jesus’s sacrifice on Good Friday. Eventually, Wednesdays were also designated as a day of penance. By the 10th century, Saturday had been set aside as a day to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.

For more than 100 years, the annual Goodfellows newspaper sale has been held in Detroit on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Its proceeds help guarantee that "no child is without a Christmas."

The sale was the idea of James J. Brady, a successful businessman who never forgot his own humble roots. He was born in 1878 to a poor family in Detroit's Irish neighborhood of Corktown,

One day, Brady saw a Detroit News editorial cartoon entitled, "The Boy He Used to Be." It portrayed a wealthy businessman walking hand-in-hand with an impoverished newsboy, delivering Christmas gifts to the needy.

Moved by the cartoon, Brady contacted the newspaper to see how he could help. The editor directed him tot he Detroit Newsboys Association, a group of former newsboys and newspapermen. Brady met with the group and pitched the idea of selling newspapers on the city's street corners to raise money for needy children. The first sale was held December 21, 1914. The group's goal was $400, but they raised $2,275, enough to buy food, clothing and toys for nearly 3,400 children.

Nine years after starting the Goodfellows sale, James Brady died of a heart attack in 1923. His funeral Mass was held at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Detroit.

Today the annual Old Newsboys' Goodfellows Fund of Detroit raises more than a million dollars a year.

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. - Luke 1:1-4

Luke, writing some 50 years after the resurrection, did not witness the ministry of Jesus. But he assures us that he has examined things "from the beginning" and has gone over "everything" and made sure to do so "accurately."

The Church teaches that Luke and the other biblical others were "inspired." This doesn't mean that God dictated word for word, but rather that the Holy Spirit gave special guidance to the authors so that they (each with their own style and limitations) ultimately taught what God wanted taught.

The Church also teaches that this same Spirit is active in you when you read Scripture.

As you begin to walk day by day through the first part of Luke's Gospel, it might be a good idea to begin with a prayer - something like: "O God, as I begin spending six minutes a day for these next 44 days, I ask that you open my mind and heart to your Spirit. May all my thoughts have their origin in you."

That's a fine approach not only when praying the Scriptures, but when walking through each day of your life. Like today.

"The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus." - Evangelii Gaudium

On November 24, 2013, Pope Francis issued a pastoral exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium ("The Joy of the Gospel") which urged a joyful proclamation of the Gospel to the world.

"I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day," wrote Pope Francis in the exhortation, whose publication came at the conclusion of the Year of Faith.

This year's Little Blue Book will reflect on the infancy narrative of St. Luke. Beacuse he is known as the "joyful evangelist," joy will be the theme of many of the left-hand pages.

Each year St. Peter Parish offers the Little Blue Books to parishioners. These books were originally written by Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw and contain daily six-minute prayers and meditations. The purpose of this book is to encourage people to pray . . . even if only for six minutes a day.

How to use the Little Blue Book

Each 24-hour day has 1,440 minutes.

You're asked to give six of those 1,440 minutes to prayer for the next. 43 days.

You can give more than six minutes if you wish. But the main thing is to pray every day.

People who pray regularly will tell you that it works best if you do it at a set time every day. The main thing is to make it part of your schedule, not something you try to squeeze in whenever. It can vary at times, but you need a basic pattern. You can't simply say, "I'll do it when I get a chance."

This Little Blue Book will be your companion, and you can take it with you wherever you wish. You can write in it, tear out a page and put it in your pocket, get extra copies and mail them to friends or family members and have a sense of praying with them each day.

The left-hand page is like a buffet table with a variety of thoughts about the Advent and Christmas seasons, the feast of the day, or various traditions and customs.

The key is the right-hand page. On that page each day (except Sundays), we'll walk through the first part of Luke's Gospel a little bit at a time.

All of this provides the framework for you to enjoy one of our oldest traditions of prayer called lectio divina - sacred reading. We take a short Scripture passage and simply let God speak to us through the words, guiding us to reflections that sometimes seem to come from nowhere.

People are often surprised at how easy it is to pray this way, and how deep such prayer can be.

​It can change your day ... change your life.

Throughout the Advent season, this blog will feature some of the meditations and reflections featured in the Little Blue Book as a way to enhance our Advent preparations. If you would like to follow along or read the entire book, copies are available at St. Peter Church after Masses and in the Administration Bldg.﻿​

Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” - Matthew 24:37-44

​This week, we enter the liturgical season of Advent. Advent has always been seen as a time of preparation for the coming of Christ, both as a baby at Christmas and more fully into our lives and hearts. In fact, Advent comes from the Latin adventus which translates into "coming." Fittingly, then, Jesus makes this point about preparation clear in this week's Gospel. In describing the Second Coming, Jesus makes it clear that it will come at a time when we are not expecting it. Therefore, we must always be prepared for this event to happen so we are not caught off guard. We must constantly be reading ourselves and our lives in anticipation of this event.

How do we prepare ourselves? The first and most important was is through prayer. Prayer should be the backbone of any Christian's life. It is through daily prayer that we are strengthened to live our lives as Christians. It is through prayer that we discern God's will for our lives. It is through prayer that we build our relationship with God: a relationship that, if given the chance, will influence us to become His witnesses in the world. By making prayer a cornerstone in our lives, we prepare our hearts and minds for our ultimate goal: spending eternity in the presence of God.

If we center ourselves in prayer, the rest of our preparations naturally follow. It is not enough to simply spend our lives consumed in prayer. To truly prepare, we must go out into the world and proclaim Christ's message that God is Love. We do this through both our words and our deeds. We are called to be missionaries to everyone and, in doing so, become ambassadors of God's love and mercy. This is something that must be practiced and must become a conscious choice which is made every moment of every day. It is easy to focus on our own lives and become self-centered. It is far harder to try to focus everything on the other as Christ did. He is our model and our example. This is what He wants us to become.

During Advent this year, find some concrete ways to prepare. Think of how you can change your own life to become more Christlike to others. Spend more time in prayer each day. Attend daily Mass. Extend an olive branch to someone you have a difficult relationship with. Go as a family to serve others in your community. There are a myriad of ways that we each can prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ at Christmas. Make the best use of this Advent and don't let yourself be caught asleep at the wheel!

Image by Kylle_Jaxxon on flickr.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode

A period of prayer in preparation for Christmas, including four Sundays, the first nearest the feast of St. Andrew, November 30. It is the beginning of the Church's liturgical year. The use of the organ and other musical instruments is restricted in liturgical functions. However, it is allowed 1. in extraliturgical functions, 2. for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, 3. to support singing, and 4. on Gaudete Sunday, feasts and solemnities, and in any extraordinary celebration. Altars may not be decorated with flowers. In the celebration of matrimony, the nuptial blessing is always imparted. But the spouses are advised to take into account the special character of the liturgical season. Masses for various needs and votive Masses for the dead are not allowed unless there is a special need. (Etym. Latin adventus, a coming, approach, arrival.)

- From CatholicCulture.org

Advent is the first season of the liturgical year. It consists of the four Sundays prior to Christmas and the weekdays in between. It is traditionally a time of preparation, in which Catholics prepare their hearts and minds for the celebration of Christ's Incarnation at Christmas. Advent shares many similarities with Lent, including violet as the color of the season and being a time of reflection, although for many it is not as somber a time as Lent. This is reflected in many of the traditions of Advent, which involve lighting candles on the Advent wreath, celebrating various feast days of saints which fall during the season, using a calendar to count down the days until Christmas, and preparing our homes for Christmas by cleaning, decorating, and preparing food. Although it can often get swept up in the feel of the Christmas season, it is important for Catholics to mark out Advent as a special time of anticipation separate from the Christmas season. Try to find some ways this Advent to celebrate with your family and make it a special season!